The Worst Excuses You Ever Heard for Being Late

While it’s hard enough finding the right person for the job, worrying about when they will make it to work shouldn’t be an issue. However, when asked how often employees come in late for work, human resource managers told CareerBuilder that 23% of employees come into work late at least once a month and 14% say it’s a weekly occurrence.

Of the workers who have admitted to being late for work in the past, 30% have lied about the reason for their tardiness. One reason for not fessing up about the reason is that 41% of employers have actually fired an employee for being late, according to CareerBuilder.

That’s not to say that all bosses are the same. One third of employers (33%) say they have no problem with the occasional late arrival, as long as it doesn’t become a pattern, and 16% say they don’t need employees to be punctual if they can still get their work done. (Indeed, 59% of workers who arrive late will stay later to make up for it.)

When they do offer excuses for being late, sometimes the excuses are so bizarre that you wonder how these people ever got hired in the first place. Talent gap or not, sometimes you've just got to let chronic "no shows" go.

This slideshow offers some of the more inventive excuses for being late, and we invite readers to add their own "worst excuse I ever heard" in the Comments section below.